


A Knife Beneath Her Pillow

by Cantatrice18



Category: Willow (1988)
Genre: Fear, Gen, Powerlessness, Self-Defense, intruder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:38:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6249241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cantatrice18/pseuds/Cantatrice18
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sorsha hadn't always kept a weapon within easy reach as she slept. It had taken an encounter with a certain monstrous General to make her realize how helpless she was without a sharpened blade nearby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Knife Beneath Her Pillow

Sorsha hadn’t always slept with a knife beneath her pillow. It had begun some months before, on her first joint command assignment. Before then her knife had lain with her sword and armor, a few paces from the bed should an enemy attack the camp without warning. Until she’d joined forces with Kael’s troops, she’d never considered the possibility that assaults could come from within.

It was a summer night, humid and cloying, the air thick and full of the buzz of insects. The tent kept out the worst of the flies, but nothing could alleviate the oppressive heat, and she spent what felt like hours tossing and turning upon her makeshift bed. She had no idea when she’d finally managed to fall asleep. All she knew was that when she awoke sometime later, she was no longer alone. Someone was standing over her, casting a long shadow across her bed. She froze, trying to discern the stranger’s identity even as she feigned sleep. The man – for she assumed it was a man, both from his size and from the fact that she was the only woman allowed in Queen Bavmorda’s army – towered mutely over her, neither speaking nor moving. Then, very slowly, he reached out towards her with a single clawed hand. Her blood ran cold as she recognized her stepfather, Kael, General of the Queen’s armies and the most powerful man in the realm. In addition to the bloodthirstiness that came with his position, Kael was known to have a particularly violent streak toward women. She’d tried to ignore the rumors she’d heard about him, of innkeeper’s daughters left bruised and bloodied at his hands and of female prisoners subjected to the worst fates. Nonetheless, it terrified her to know that she was entirely in his power. The thin white linen of her nightdress clung to the curves of her body, made nearly transparent by her own sweat and the moisture in the air. She felt entirely exposed as she struggled to keep her breathing natural, to maintain the charade of sleep, for she knew that if she caught him in her tent he would have no choice but to silence her through violence. And so she waited, terror setting her heart to racing, wondering what he would choose to do with her. Kael passed his hand slowly over her body, the tips of his fingers hovering a hair’s breadth from her skin. He paused for a moment over her breasts, and again at the cleft between her legs, his hand tensing as though longing to dig his fingers into her soft and unprotected flesh. And then, from outside the tent, Sorsha heard the most welcome sound in the world: the blare of a horn as the bugler sounded the call to arms. Somewhere nearby a group of rebels had been spotted approaching their camp, meaning both she and Kael were needed elsewhere. She felt rather than heard the General retreat, his dark presence fading as he departed. Only when she was certain he’d gone did she open her eyes and sit up in bed. Her limbs were trembling from the unexpected surge of fear he’d given her, and it took a moment to calm herself enough to dress for battle. In the end, though, her military training held fast and she set the memory of her strange encounter aside in order to focus on the task at hand. 

The rebels were easily defeated. She needn’t have rushed to dress, for the ringleaders were in chains before she’d even mounted her horse. She ordered them sent to the work camps in the mountains and dispatched a pair of soldiers to act as escort, then set about making sure the rest of their company was packed up and ready to move. That night she took her belt knife from the pile of armaments in the corner of her tent and tucked it beneath the furs that formed her pillow. Part of her knew that Kael was stronger than her and nearly twice her size, but the presence of the knife helped reassure her enough to sleep again. 

Sorsha had not always slept with a knife, but her reasons for doing so were sound. Even at her most vulnerable, she was not helpless. Any man who intended to make a toy of her body would find a painful surprise awaited him. She would not be anyone’s conquest, nor would she fall prey to a predator’s lust. The sharpened steel beneath her pillow was evidence enough of that.


End file.
